Sarah Calburn – Matric Class 1981

Sarah Calburn attended Roedean school from 1970 through to her matric year in 1981.SarahCalburn founded her Johannesburg practice in 1996 after completing a Masters in Architecture by Research at the Royal Melbourne Insitute of Technology. She graduated from Wits with distinction in 1987, and has worked in Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne. Her multi award-winning practice specializes in design integrity, in the ‘art’ of architecture. She locates her ethos in the conceptual space between landscape and architecture, and is committed to a critical architectural practice which is able to sustain both a creative and a critical dialogue with its environment.

Currently she sits on the committee of the Gauteng Institute for Architecture, from which position in Habitat she has initiated a series of CPD accredited Design Masterclasses called ‘Rapid Thought Transport: Architects re-imagine Joburg’. She is currently Program Director of the first South African Architectural Biennale to be held in Joburg in Sept 2010: ArchitectureZA 2010, which sees wide ranges of local and international practioners put into creative conversation around the urban futures of Joburg. She is passionate about the re-empowerment of architecture in what she perceives as the rapidly privatising, developer-led urban environments of South Africa. She has taught design at various local and international universities, lectures frequently at the various architectural events, writes on architecture, and has been part of numerous university examination and other competition judging panels. Her work and writing have been published in both local and international magazines and books, including the Phaedon Atlas of World Architecture and Wallpaper magazine. She has taught at RMIT, and continues to teach and examine design at UCT and Wits.

Academic Awards

Sarah was awarded the Australian government postgraduate research scholarship in 1994